Katatonica

Many state schools are much better than many private ones: maybe the best ones should be restricted to.. er whom then? Or maybe they should just have their good teachers taken away and forced to work elsewhere then? Life is unfair and you can't level up everyone, all this policy is doing, as with the farmers, is punishing those at the bottom of the sector targeted for punishment.. Communism doesn't work I'm afraid.

There is no funding and improvement, just the removal of choice for people who largely work twice as hard just to be able to pay for their choice of education for their children. Most privately educated children come from perfectly ordinary backgrounds with their parents just wanting them to have the best education they can scrape the funds together for. Imagine how it feels to be pulled out of school mid-year and sent to the one in the nearby sink estate purely through a vicious, spiteful political decision that will not raise an extra penny for public education, in fact costing the state many more millions and increasing class sizes country-wide to boot?

There will always be a huge variance in state sector schools and buying into a better area will generally get you a better school. 'Buying privileges' (note that a plural doesn't have an apostrophe) as you put it will not go away. Now thousands of people will be leaving the British Armed Forces because they can't afford boarding schools and special needs children will not be able to get their niche education that is so necessary for their well-being. The sole reason I made the choice to go to a boarding school was that my local comprehensive made the national news when its assembly hall was burnt down in a riot, just by the way. The state education system will not benefit by this piece of pure envy politics, as is plainly obvious. There is a place available for every child at a state school and the private sector already reduces that pressure by tens of thousands of places. If the system was actually fair, the parents of those children should receive tax credits as they are not being a burden on the state. Private education is thus already a huge benefit to the state education system, taking it away is pointless even if it does make the spiteful far-left feel better.

Far more likely to be accelerator jammed to the floor. Hitting the wall at the speed necessary to demolish it and have the car follow through leads one to think he was going way too fast for a car park in the first place. Maybe got the pedals mixed up..? Or foot jammed, dropped his phone etc.

You're bluffing obviously.

Regarding your last sentence there may be a little intersection there.

In your humble yet unexplained opinion apparently. Phuket has many redeeming features such as many square kilometres of unspoilt forest, dozens of extremely good beaches with clear water in high season, decent surf off-season and the surrounding islands, Phang Nga bay and incredible mainland topography at Khao Sok and Hat Rai Ley, etc. There are many world class restaurants and for the wealthy many incredible resorts. Several hundred villas in the multimillion dollar range as well as several hundred yachts, yacht facilities outclassing even Singapore. Many billionaires seem to be happy to have property there. Maybe you've just visited Patong? Even that's a cut above Pattaya, which I had the misfortune to have to work in for a few months a year or two back, hated the place. I live near Patong but I rarely venture there either.

Thank-you for that information but my concern is whether I will have a problem entering visa exempt again for just my 5 day leave. We were married in Thailand, at a registry office, over a decade ago.

Yes, I was given a hard time last time I entered even showing a flight back out 5 days later. I work in Singapore but cannot use the Thai embassy here because I do not have a long term residence permit. I am signed on to a vessel based here so can stay as long as I need to but no residency permit. I get 5 days a month leave but I am very concerned as to how they’re going to treat me if I go again for my next leave, due next week. I did go to Penang and got a TR 3 month visa a few months ago, which I let expire after 3 monthly 5-day trips, due to the new regulations (which don’t seem to apply to regular visitors at all - I just get told to get a marriage visa but it’s not that simple) but I’m very reluctant to do that again: 2 months without going home to my Thai wife and home and 5 expensive days on my own in a place I would rather not go to, instead.

Very good point and imagine if someone took a picture of your wife from a car window in the UK and posted it on social media saying look at this (non-local colour) foreign person working here.

One of the best places I have ever cruised actually. I take it you haven't? There are 4 big marinas in Phuket, a couple in Krabi, several yacht specialising shipyards, including in Bangkok, many international companies in the marine industry with offices in Phuket and Ocean Marina, Jomtien and smack bang on the route from the Med to the rest of SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Hundreds of superyachts base themselves in Thai waters already. Not so much in the Gulf but Samui etc and the northern islands have a lot of traffic.

The one mentioned is sitting on the bottom, melting land-based ice will rapidly raise sea levels. So when the sea-ice has receded to shallower depths we’re going to see a big acceleration in sea-level rise. Not too hard to grasp really.

Not that funny if read properly. He is proposing economic responses to a Greenpeace study.

Quite aware of that, thanks, can see it and the landslide from my house.